The presence of a stable partner at the other end has helped him become more dangerous, says Viru

AMIT GUPTA

IN THE WINTER of 2007, if someone had written Virender Sehwag’s cricket career’s epitaph it might have read something like this: See ball, hit ball. The opener had been excluded from the list of 40-odd probables for the tour of Australia and with a string of low scores behind him, the long route back into the Indian side was his for the taking. But you can’t keep a good man down for long. It didn’t take the selectors much time to realise that in Sehwag they have a match-winner and to go to Australia without him would be sheer folly. Former chairman of selectors Dilip Vengsarkar offered him a berth on the plane Down Under. And the rest, as they say, is history. An astonishing 1,462 runs followed with a highest score of 319 (against South Africa at Chennai) at an average of 56.23 in 14 Test matches including three centuries and six half-centuries. Add to that 893 ODI runs at an average of 49.61 and you realise Sehwag’s value to the side. GAMBHIR ASSIST BUT IN recent times, Sehwag hasn’t been a lone warrior. With Gambhir, at the other end, he has forged a formidable partnership and their success has meant that the selectors will never look for makeshift openers again. While in the past, the opposition worried more about the famed Indian middle order, the consistency and pace at which the duo score runs means they can’t be ignored. As Viru explains, “Earlier the opposition used to only think about getting me out. I had played with a lot of partners like SS Das, Sanjay Bangar, Aakash Chopra and others. Either these men didn’t get a long enough run or were not consistent in terms of getting big 100s. But Wasim Jaffer, he has two double hundreds to his name and now Gambhir have got runs on a regular basis. “Now the opposition is forced to come up with new ideas. This has helped us in setting up good platforms for the team. But I must say that not only the openers but guys like Mahender Singh Dhoni, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, Harbhajan Singh and Amit Mishra and others have contributed to the success,” he added. His form with the bat has been rewarded with the tag of vice-captaincy. But as he says in his typical style, “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I am taking the responsibility to get runs and when required, wickets for the team.” With almost a decade of international cricket under his belt, Viru stands at an interesting juncture of his career. With Ganguly and Kumble already hanging their boots and the likes of Dravid, Tendulkar and VVS Laxman expected to leave in a year or two, the dasher will be an important link between past and the future. “I won’t say that I am a link or not but as I am ready to help the youngsters, who I feel are already very mature, coming into the side. I tell them how to approach the game and help them feel comfortable. This is the job that someone like Yuvraj Singh, Bhajji, Dhoni and me have to do,” says Sehwag. With no international cricket happening, Sehwag these days is basking in the glory of a successful 2008. But the year had hardly started off in the best manner. AUSTRALIAN SURPRISE “I KNEW I had a bad 2007, so when the selectors excluded me from the probables for the Australian tour that year... I didn’t take it to heart. I was rather surprised when they picked me from nowhere to tour and was ready to sit out of the first few matches, I always knew that I will get a chance if not in the first Test but in some match during the series.” “In Perth, I had a decent outing and in Adelaide, the pitch was just prefect for me to play my natural game. At that point too I was not thinking too much about myself, I just wanted to do well for the team as and when I got a chance. The year 2008 was a tough challenge for me and I think as one of the members of a good Indian team, I have done well,” he added.